1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates a method for evaluating lung cancer metastasis, a biomarker for evaluating lung cancer metastasis, a siRNA compound for inhibiting lung cancer metastasis, and a method for analyzing secretome.
2. Description of Related Art
Cancer, also known as malignant neoplasm, is a disease involving failed mechanism of cell growth proliferation. Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the world, and some remarkable problems that get in the way of treating lung cancer are that there is low abundance of effective prognosis tools, and low abundance of prevention-oriented treatment methods for keeping off metastasis. In terms of the most popular type of occurring cancer by number of patients, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for approximately 85% of the demographics, and among all the histological types of NSCLC, lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type. Many lung cancer patients are diagnosed with distant metastatic, and most of them die as a result of the metastases instead of due to the original tumors. The survival rate of lung cancer patients within a 5 year time frame during treatment period is 15.2% and only 2.8% for lung cancer patients complicated by distant metastases. Metastasis is clearly a fatal condition adversely affecting malignant tumor development. Unfortunately, current technologies in clinical practice cannot keep up to solve this problem as there is still low abundance of effective diagnostic and prognostic tools for metastasis and other progression predictions. To further increase patients' survival rates, studies related to the mechanisms of metastasis are of immediate importance.
Metastasis, the ultimate event in a cancer progression, can be described as the complex process in which cancer cells travel from a tumor site and migrate through the bloodstream or lymphatic system to other parts of the body. During this intricate process, numerous proteins are required to assist in the progression of the tumor cells. For example, secretory proteins, which are released from cells via various pathways, including the classical ER-golgi pathway, vesicle release, or a specific channel, are known as the secretome. In previous research, cell secretome was widely used via proteomics technologies in cancer research. There are three main aspects of this research, including discovering clinical biomarker, understanding mechanisms of cancer progression, and planning cancer treatment strategy. Previously, there are many studies reporting that some biomarkers are associated with cancer metastasis and aggression and angiogenesis, such as the proteinase MMP-9 and VEGF respectively.
However, modern technology and the discovered biomarkers still have their shortcomings for cancer metastasis and cancer development process prediction. Therefore, there is still room for people in the art to develop and improve prediction accuracy as well as technical aspects.